Widening Hostilities, Israel Kills Chief of P.L.O. Faction

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Israel widened the scope of its attacks on key Palestinians today, killing the head of a radical Palestinian faction in an airborne missile strike on his offices here. The attack set off renewed gunfire at a Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing an armored Israeli thrust into the Palestinian-ruled town of Beit Jala.

The killing of the Palestinian, Mustafa Zubari, known as Abu Ali Mustafa, 63, was the first time that Israel had killed the top-ranking leader of a Palestinian faction in 11 months of increasing violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mr. Zubari had been chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was a longtime member of the P.L.O. leadership.

Witnesses said Israeli helicopter gunships fired two missiles through windows of Mr. Zubari's office on the third floor of an apartment building here, killing him as he sat at his desk and slightly wounding five people.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in angry demonstrations after the attack, and the Popular Front vowed swift revenge. The Palestinian Authority said Israel had ''opened wide the gates of its all-out war,'' backed by the United States.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an adviser to Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, said, ''This policy of assassinations, which is being conducted with a green light from the United States, will push the area into a new cycle of violence and danger.''

Hours after the killing, Palestinian gunmen shot and killed a Jewish settler as he rode in a car near Nablus in the West Bank. A caller to Reuters said it was a first revenge action by the Popular Front.

Shots were also fired at the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, slightly wounding one resident and setting off protracted exchanges of fire with gunmen in the neighboring town of Beit Jala. After three hours of gunbattles, Israeli armor and infantry moved into the Palestinian town.

According to initial reports from the scene, paratroopers backed by tanks, bulldozers and helicopters had moved into the town. Gunbattles broke out as the armored troop carriers rumbled into Beit Jala and residents were called out over loudspeakers to defend the town, the reports said. [A Palestinian policeman, Mohammed Samur, 25, was killed during the clash, said Dr. Peter Qumri, director of Beit Jalla Hospital, The Associated Press reported.]

The army spokesman said that the soldiers had seized high ground in Beit Jala to prevent shooting at Gilo, and that the army would remain in Beit Jala ''for a limited time.'' Gilo, built on West Bank land captured by Israel in 1967, is considered a settlement by Palestinians, and has been the target of repeated shooting attacks during the months of violence.

The Israeli army also thrust into a refugee camp at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying at least eight houses near an army position that had come under repeated Palestinian attack.

The killing of Mr. Zubari was an unmistakable expansion of Israel's policy of tracking and killing suspected militants, a method it has called self-defense against the deadly bombings and shootings of the Palestinan uprising.

Previous Israeli killings of suspected militants had singled out field operatives who Israel said had been involved in terrorist attacks. But Mr. Zubari was at the top of the pyramid of the Popular Front, having taken over the group last year from its ailing founder, Dr. George Habash, after years as his deputy.

Largely known for its airplane hijackings in the late 1960's and 70's, the Popular Front, a Marxist group long based in Damascus, opposed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel and refused to join the Palestinian Authority.

Although it is the second-ranking faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization after Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement, the Popular Front has played a smaller role in the uprising than Fatah and the Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Holy War, whose attacks have killed scores of Israelis.

Mr. Zubari, who was born in the West Bank village of Arrabe, helped found the Popular Front in 1967 and served for a period as the head of its armed wing. He was allowed back into the West Bank by Israel in 1999 after 32 years in exile, on the condition that he renounce armed resistance.

Israeli officials said that he never kept that promise, and set about organizing cells that began carrying out attacks during the uprising, including several car bombings this year in which no one was hurt.

''As far as we are concerned, his hands are soaked in blood,'' said Dore Gold, a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. ''The distinction between political and military leaders is completely irrelevant in this case.''

Palestinians asserted that Mr. Zubari was a political figure, and they accused Israel of opening a new phase in the conflict by extending its killings to the Palestinian political leadership. ''This is crossing all red lines,'' said Saeb Erakat, a member of the Palestinian cabinet. ''Sharon is inviting all hell to break loose.''

Ahmad Abdel Rahman, a senior aide to Mr. Arafat, accused the United States of complicity in the killing of Mr. Zubari, which he said was carried out ''with American missiles, with American aircraft and with American diplomatic cover.''

He added, ''Mr. Bush's declarations are behind this murder.'' Many Palestinians were angered after President Bush accused Mr. Arafat on Friday of not doing enough to stop terrorist attacks on Israel.

Hours after the killing, red flags of the Popular Front hung over a blackened window opening where a missile had flown into Mr. Zubari's office. A tattered Palestinian flag and his bloodstained chair lay among the debris, and the walls were pockmarked with shrapnel.

Fadi Abu Salah, Mr. Zubari's bodyguard, said he had rushed in after the missiles hit and found his boss dead under his overturned chair.

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A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 6 of the National edition with the headline: Widening Hostilities, Israel Kills Chief of P.L.O. Faction. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe